VYSHGOROD (Ukraine): The Qatar Team’s Shaun Torrente and defending UIM F1 H20 World Champion Alex Carella finished second and third behind Frenchman Phillipe Chiappe in the Grand Prix of Ukraine on the Kiev Sea at Vyshgorod on Saturday evening.

Chiappe managed to pass pole winner Sami Selio of Finland to take the lead of a grand prix for the first time and the CTIC China Team driver held on to win his first ever F1 H20 race, despite fierce pressure from Torrente over the latter stages of the race. Carella shadowed his team-mate to the finish in third and Selio was fourth.

Khalid Abdullah Al-Kuwari qualified in fourth position and finished fifth in his F-4S race for the Eurofin Trophy. Latvian rookie Nikita Lijcs won the race but second place for Mike Szimura gave the German a two-point lead over Niklas Friberg in the points’ standings.

“Unbelievable,” said Khalid bin Arhama AL-Kuwari, head of formula racing at the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF), which runs under the presidency of His Excellency Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani. “This race was like a scene from a movie, so exciting.

“I have always had every faith in Shaun as a terrific driver and he and Alex did a great job for us today. Second and third places are a perfect result for us and it means that we leave here with a one-point lead in the championship. I would like to thank Sheikh Hassan for his support for the F1 team and also our pit crew here who put in four to five days of very hard work to make sure that this result was possible.”

The race

Torrente and Carella began the 38-lap race on the reservoir within the Dnieper River from third and fourth positions behind pole winner Selio and Chiappe. Selio, Chiappe and Torrente held station but Carella slipped behind Al-Qamzi into fifth after the opening lap.

The leading trio began to pull away from the chasing pack through the subsequent laps and Selio began lap seven 2.14sec clear of Chiappe. Torrente was running in third position and Carella was fourth, despite vagaries in the official results that showed that Torrente was down in eighth position.

Chiappe managed to pass Selio on lap 17 and led the race for the first time. The Frenchman continued to pull away from the Finn as the race entered the final 18 laps. The online results showed that Carella and Torrente were fourth and seventh, although they were running in fourth and second in the ‘official’ running order.

Chiappe continued to hold the lead from the Qatar Team driver and the gap was 3.2sec after 27 of 38 laps. Carella passed Al-Qamzi to snatch fourth and then moved ahead of Selio in the closing stages to take third place.

Qualifying

Qualifying was postponed from Friday evening until 11.15hrs on Saturday morning because of the strong wind and water conditions. Seventeen racers from 12 nations took to the course in blustery conditions and five would be eliminated before Q2 with six progressing to Q3 for the points-scoring shoot-out.

Torrente began well and a lap of 51.02sec put him at the top of the pile with 11 minutes remaining in the session. Carella was down in eighth but in a qualification spot and he climbed to fourth in the final six minutes with the Qatar duo eventually finishing the session in second and ninth places. Filip Roms, Rinaldo Osculati, Valerio Lagiannella, Xiong Ziwei and rookie Tommy Wahlsten were eliminated.

Torrente slotted into fourth early in Q2 with a 50.15sec lap before slipping to fifth. Carella was down in seventh with nine minutes remaining and needed to pull a fast lap out of the bag if he was to make the shoot-out. A late 49.69sec lap was sufficient to snatch fifth and Torrente went on to win the session with a 48.71sec lap, but Marit Stromoy, Duarte Benavente, Ahmed Al-Hameli, Francesco Cantando and Jonas Andersson were eliminated.

Al-Qamzi set the target lap of 47.95sec in the shoot-out, but Carella managed to sneak inside with a lap of 47.44sec only for Phillipe Chiappe to go even quicker with a first lap of 46.39sec. Sami Selio was not to be denied either and a first lap of 45.52sec put him in provisional pole. Torrente slotted into third with a first lap of 46.45sec, as Selio claimed pole position.

F-4S

Khalid Al-Kuwari qualified in fourth position for the second F-4S race with a best lap of 44.49sec, as Latvian rookie Nikita Lijcs claimed pole position. The newcomer held the lead through lap one but Al-Kuwari slipped to fifth and then moved down to sixth as Lijcs led from Szimura through lap six.

Al-Kuwari climbed back to fifth at the halfway point and maintained his position through lap 20 and on to the finish, as Lijcs claimed his first ever F-4S win and Szimura was a distant second to claim a two-point lead in the championship.

The third round of the series takes the Qatar Team to Liuzhou in China on October 1-2.